156 Prof. Schlegel on some Extinct Gigantic Birds 



for one could not account it a Rail {Rallus), as it carries its tail 

 erect and has a frontal plate, any more than a Crane (Grus), 

 which genus is most allied to Rallus^. The genus Porphyrio, 

 though zoologically and geographically very natural and so very 

 conspicuous by the more or less fine blue colour of the feathers_, 

 differs really from Gallinula in no other I'cspect than in the 

 higher bill and oval nostrils, while these in Gallinula are more 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



elongated. Since, then, the figure of our bird shows elongated 

 nostrils, and also a bill (so far as one can determine its form in 

 the plate, where it is represented as seen from above) which 

 seems to have been less high than in Porphyrio, and, finally, 

 since its colour is very different from that of Porphyria, we 

 must accordingly range it under the genus Gallinula. 



We will now examine how far the exact proportion of the 

 various parts of our bird is observed in Leguat's figure. Since 



* [Cf. Ibis, 18G5, p. 5.S.S.— Ed.] 



